October 2014 – Schatzi

My 19th week baby bump story

19th week

How far along: 18 weeks 6 days
How much do I weigh: 50,6 kg (+ 1,8 kg) – I weighed 53 kg at the OB which almost made me faint (it was right in the morning), BUT I had all my clothes and boots on. The last times I always wore summer clothes but this time it was pretty much winter here.
Belly size: It’s getting bigger day by day it seems. Sorry, my hollow-back is showing again, I’ve always had problems keeping my back straight. My trainers at the gym tell me all the time 🙁

Baby Bump Week 19 - 18w6d — Baby Bump Week 19 – 18w6d

Belly button in or out: In
Sleep: Pretty good. I wake up once to go to the bathroom but fall asleep easily
Food (non) cravings: No typical (non) cravings, everything as usual
Symptoms: The uterus is stretching and I can feel it. It didn’t hurt as much this week like it did last week.
Maternity clothes: The pants. They’re a bit too big and I don’t feel too good in them, plus I need to get them shortened. I think if I’d feel comfortable in my maternity pants I’d feel more comfortable with my big belly. I might buy one more pair of pants at a different store.
Stretch marks: Nope
Miss anything: Nope
Looking forward to: Seeing my baby again in two weeks 😀 I’m also looking forward on picking up the diaper changing table in three days and painting that.
Best happenings this week:

Seeing our baby! He’s so active which was nice to see, read about it in the gender reveal post.
Meeting the midwife. She dropped by yesterday afternoon and the bubby and I could meet her personally. She’s very nice and friendly, it seems like she doesn’t want to press her opinion on the mothers but also wants that the moms feel comfortable with their/her choices. She’ll help me after the birth, showing me how to breastfeed, weigh the baby and things like that. I can call her anytime I want before the birth as well but if all goes good with me and the baby, the next time I’ll see her is in February 2015.
Moving the big couch out of the baby room into the living room 🙂 Now we have space for the baby furniture and a huge sitting area in the living room. The colors of the couches don’t match (one is brown, the other one grey) but oh well. It’s the best and only solution.

Here are some photos of our baby

Movement: Hm, not sure. This morning in bed I thought I might feel the baby kicking, but nothing obvious. My OB thinks I’ll be feeling him kick very soon. She’s usually right with her thoughts.
Gender: A baby-boy – 100%!!
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy! I don’t think I’m too moody, but you’d have to read the blog of my boyfriend for his opinion. He doesn’t have a blog?! Dang…
Sports: What now?

Boy or Girl? The gender reveal post

At 18 weeks and 5 days baby had its big organ scan.

Before the OB checked the baby, she checked my female parts using a vaginal ultrasound. She checked if my cervix is closed (which it is) and measured how long my neck of the uterus is, which was 4,2cm I think. So all good there. Phew. She also checked the sex of the baby just in case she couldn’t see it in the belly ultrasound. So I knew 100% but my boyfriend, who was waiting in the next room, didn’t. When the OB and me came out of the doctor’s office that was his first question – “what is it??”, so of course, I told him :).

Then we went over to the belly ultrasound to get a good picture of the whole baby. All was good, my OB measured baby’s head, belly and thighbone to figure out the weight which is around 230g.
Then she checked the whole body, started with the brain, the face, the heart, the torso, the arms & legs, hands & feet (he only showed us one foot) and also the blood flow, the baby’s and mine. She turned on the sound for the heartbeats, first the baby’s which is quite fast (wumm.wumm.wumm.wumm.wumm), and then mine. I felt like a big elephant with my slow heartbeat “wumm……………. wumm………….. wumm”.
Everything good, everything there, everybody happy.

The baby was very active and moved around lots. We saw it kicking against my full bladder, ehem 😉

While the OB was checking baby’s heart it was making a somersault. The OB didn’t move her ultrasonic device and all of a sudden, instead of the heart in zoom the baby showed its genital area, it was a sweet and funny moment, especially the comments of my doctor.

Baby really wanted to let us know that it’s a boy!

I think he wanted to tell me “Hey Mom, no pink Hello Kitty stuff for me, I know you love pink and Sanrio but, I’m a boy, see?!” It was very sweet.

So I guess I’ll just have to buy pink Hello Kitty stuff for me (but there’s also blue Hello Kitty stuff) and not for my baby, sigh, but I’ll get over it ;). Last year I even bought a new carpet for our office/baby room which is turquoise, so that’s perfect! We are very very happy that the results are all good and that our baby boy is healthy and growing and sportive, just like his parents, hah 🙂

Now we can narrow down our baby names, we already agreed on one name but I’d like to have two or three names we both like and then maybe decide on the final name when our son is born. I also want him to have a second name and that’s something we didn’t talk about at all. But, we have time 🙂

My 18th week baby bump story

18th Week

How far along: 17 weeks 6 days (starting my 19th week tomorrow)
How much do I weigh: 50,4 kg (+1,6 kg) (ok, I ate lunch every day last week and last night we went out and I ate a huge burger with french fries and a side salad)
Belly size: I think it’s huge, especially when I don’t hold in my stomach.

Baby Bump Week 18 - 17w6d — Baby Bump Week 18 – 17w6d

Belly button in or out: In
Sleep: Been good!!
Food (non) cravings: Nothing special. Healthy food cravings, but also sweets.
Symptoms: Cramps and some pain in my belly
Maternity clothes: Always!
Stretch marks: None yet, I guess
Miss anything: For breakfast on the weekends I miss not being able to eat salami sticks from our whole food store.
Looking forward to: The next ultrasound in 4 days. Also, in two days it’s October 21, 2014 which means my due date is in exactly 5 months!
Best happenings this week:

I officially have a midwife and I’m going to meet her in five days. I’d like her for my after-care so she can help me breastfeeding and give me tips. On the phone she sounds very nice and friendly, she’s experienced, she just went on a retraining and she lives right around the corner.
One of my co-workers wants to get rid of a baby changing table so we’re getting that (it’s a dresser as well) from him for 35 EURO. Now pretty much the only thing we need to spend more money on is the stroller.
A female colleague of mine looked at my belly this week and said that now you can really see I’m pregnant. She looked at me and asked “are you having a boy?” and I answered we don’t know 100%, but why does she ask if we’re having a boy? She answered that my skin is so nice and my face looks so good and that that’s a sign that I’m having a boy. If I’d be having a girl I’d have more pimples. She said she’s normally right about her guesses so we’ll see.
I chatted with my mom on the phone, my parents are on vacation, we only e-mail each other so it was nice chatting with her again. Hi Mom and Dad 🙂
I bought two “maternity” long sleeves yesterday. But, they are non-maternity, they are just regular tops, the one is a bit wider around the belly and the size S was too big so I had to buy XS, which made me feel good 🙂

Movement: Well, I don’t feel anything on the outside, I sometimes feel something in my belly but it’s hard to say if that’s really the baby or just my dinner moving it’s way down…
Gender: We will know in four days 🙂 Still thinking it’s a boy!
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy but also worrying about the future at times.
Sports: Nope 🙁 Shame on me. The last time I’ve been to the gym was a month ago. I’m planning *cough* on going *cough* today though.

The weather here this weekend is amazing

My 17th week baby bump story

Week 17

How far along: 16 weeks 6 days (I’m 17 weeks pregnant tomorrow)
How much do I weigh: 49,8 kg (+ 1,0 kg)
Belly size: It’s growing, that’s for sure. My co-workers notice now (and the men are scared to ask if I’m pregnant, because maybe I just gained weight)

Belly button in or out: In
Sleep: Been good this week
Food (non) cravings: Eating quite much for dinner (Pizza, Döner) which shows in my weight gain some mornings.
Symptoms: Just the usual stings and cramps in my belly, I guess that’s the uterus growing?
Maternity clothes: Sometimes (mostly) I wear the pants, they are so much more comfortable!
Stretch marks: Nope
Miss anything: This week the boyfriend and I were eating Pizza and he had a cold bottle of beer on the table and I was thirsty. I would have liked to take a sip, so I guess I missed beer this week 🙂
Looking forward to: I’m really looking forward to organizing and re-decorating our apartment. It’s tiny and I need to buy some storage boxes and get things cleaned up here. I started already by emptying out the Expedit, I don’t want that in the dining room anymore.
Best happenings this week: I finally made appointments for looking at hospitals in November (we’re looking at three). I also know when the next prenatal classes start (January) and I looked for midwives in this area.
On Saturday afternoon I visited my friend’s newborn girl, she’s so cute and tiny! Adorable, can’t wait for my own 🙂
Movement: Nope
Gender: Still thinking it’s a boy
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy, especially now that I’m healthy again.
Sports: Nope, None, Nada 🙁

Coconutmilk vs. Coconutmilk

Today we’re cooking Thai. A wok, a lot of veggies, sweet potatoes and, of course, coconut milk.
We have three different coconut milks in our kitchen, two from wholefood shops (which we bought) and one from a discounter (which my mom-in-law bought).

I wanted to check the “best before” date and decide which milk to use and decided to read the ingredients (Zutaten) list instead.

Quite frankly, I was shocked!

The wholefood milks contain coconut and water. Exactly what you expect. (Bio Kokosmilch)

The discounter milk contains coconut extract and a bunch of ingredients I can’t even pronounce.

Next time I’m at a “regular” store (Rewe, Edeka) I’ll check out their Cocosmilk and see what kind of ingredients that contains.
Organic foods might not make you live longer but at least you know that you’re not eating so much chemical crap when buying wholefoods.

My 16th week baby bump story

Week 16

How far along: 15 weeks 4 days
How much do I weigh: 49,9 kg
Belly size: For me, my belly is huge! But now, looking at this photo – not so much. Damn…

Belly button in or out: In
Sleep: I wake up once or twice a night, not necessarily needing to go to the toilet though.
Food (non) cravings: The usual
Symptoms: I was sick with a cold this week. No pregnancy symptoms, only cold symptoms.
Maternity clothes: Seeing I stayed at home from work all week I had on sweat pants every day. Feels so good 🙂

Stretch marks: Nope
Miss anything: Being healthy! I ha** being sick!
Looking forward to: Going shopping for maternity clothes, which Mom and I did on Saturday. I got some boot cut jeans, some black pants and a few tops. Some maternity tops are so huge though, and ugly, you wonder who designs those clothes. I also got a pair of black boots which I’ve been looking for a longer time now. Then we had Thai lunch 🙂
Best happenings this week: Not waking up thinking “I want to rip my head off” – good feeling.
Movement: Nope
Gender: I still think the babe will be a boy.
Happy or moody most of the time: This week? Not a good question. I had way too much time to think about the future and way too much time to read baby magazines (about the birth!!) so I had the regular panic attacks and drove my fellow human beings crazy. My boyfriend asked me “What is wrong with me???” which made me laugh and answer “Duh – I’m pregnant?? Hormones etc.?? Welcome to Reality” 🙂 I guess men just don’t get pregnancy vibes as much 😉
Sports: None – for months it seems 🙁